Federal and state regulations, as well as insurance providers, require the use of roof safety systems to prevent workers from falling from a roof during construction or maintenance repairs. In certain instances if the proper safety procedures are not followed, governmental organizations such as OSHA can levy fines against companies and building owners due to non-compliance.
The safety systems are important from a regulation standpoint and a good business practice. The systems design protects workers from accidental falls and the resulting injuries or death that can occur. Minimizing these types of accidents and the resultant repercussions is important to a company. Currently, there are numerous safety rail systems used in the industry with the systems divided into two categories, a) permanent and b) temporary. Both types of systems ensure the safety of workers and have important distinct features but both have limitations.
Temporary rail safety system designs used in the industry allow a worker to erect the temporary system on the roof of a building, which allows a worker to complete a task and then remove for later use. The erection of a temporary system does not require penetrating the roofing material, which can lead to exposure of the building to weather elements, such as water. But, because of the temporary nature of this type of rail safety system many limitations are readily apparent. First, temporary systems must be put in place before a worker can begin any maintenance work on the roof. Because the safety system is not permanently affixed to the structure it creates additional work before performing the maintenance, which can lead to the potential for non-compliance because the worker does not take the time to erect the temporary safety system or does not erect it correctly. In a worker's rush to accomplish a routine maintenance task on the roof, they may choose to not put in place the safety system. If work is undertaken without the safety system in place the building owner or company could be liable to OSHA or other governmental fines, even if an accident did not occur. Additionally, temporary rail safety systems can also lack in rigidity and may not provide the support or strength that a permanent rail safety system provides. This lack of stability and strength can lead to the failure of the temporary system and injury to a worker who relies on the rail safety system.
Permanent rail safety system designs are a permanent fixture installed on the roof of a building to ensure compliance and safety standards are met. Permanent systems provide a strong and secure system because it is anchored to the building. The numerous permanent rail safety systems available on the market require anchoring to the roof through the penetration of the roof membrane, such as the use of pitch pockets, resulting in the possibility of weather elements, such as rain and snow entering and causing damage to the building. The permanent system designs fixedly attach to the building through known anchoring mechanisms, but the attachment requires penetration through the roof and into the building. To minimize the potential for water leakage because of the roof penetration, application of materials such as caulking, tar, or other water repellant products to where the roof penetration occurs helps, but ultimately the products are known to fail and leave the roof vulnerable to exposure to weather elements. Because of the requirement for creating a break in the exterior roofing membrane, an owner must maintain the penetrations continually to ensure the products used to create a water tight roof system do not fail.
Therefore a need exists for a roof safety system designed for permanent affixation to the building structure ensuring a strong secure attachment, but does not require penetration through the roof membrane, further ensuring the roof is water tight. The roof safety system design should include permanent affixation but allow the reuse of roofing materials such as drip edges, gravel stops, rakes copings and gutters for retrofit construction or standard roofing materials as described above for new construction to create the water tight exterior. The roof safety system will allow the roof membrane to cover all fasteners used to affix or secure the rail safety system to the roof creating a safety system that will not require continual maintenance and supervision to ensure a functional weather tight roof exterior.